WWE: Is Kane's Reasoning for Targeting John Cena Too Weirdly Philosophical?

Most professional wrestling feuds stem from some sort of intense hatred or fierce competition between two wrestlers. 

Whether the main goal of a particular rivalry is to win a world championship or simply prove that you’re better than your rival, the goal at the end of the day is to beat the other guy in the middle of the ring. 

Well, at least in most cases, it is. 

As we’re seeing with the ongoing storyline between Kane and John Cena, not all feuds are the result of one wrestler wanting to beat the other. In fact, it almost appears as if Kane is targeting Cena because he actually wants to help him (at least in Kane’s view). 

Kane wants Cena to stop “living a lie,” to embrace the boos and to finally admit that his haters get to him. 

This has gotten a mixed reaction from wrestling fans. Although a good portion of them believe this is all leading to some sort of character change (and possibly a heel turn) for Cena, many of them are wondering why Cena can’t just do this on his own and/or why Kane needs to be involved. 

After all, it seems like Cena could tweak his character without the returning Kane being used as a pawn in Cena’s game of gimmick chess. 

The argument is that Kane’s reasoning for targeting Cena is too weirdly philosophical, or in layman’s terms, it doesn’t make sense or is unreasonable. 

I beg to differ, though. 

The way I see it, Cena’s ongoing storyline with Kane is not much different from Cena’s angle with Wade Barrett and the Nexus back in 2010. When Cena was forced to join the Nexus, most of us immediately thought that this was a great way to turn him heel. 

The idea was that being around a bunch of other heels, or bad influences if you will, would, in fact, influence Cena to change his ways. That is, Barrett and the other Nexus members would gradually convince Cena to become a bad guy. 

That’s exactly what Kane is doing at the moment.

Kane is Wade Barrett, the Cena haters in the crowd are the Nexus members and they’re working together to slowly but surely make sure that Cena starts enjoying being booed. 

The major difference this time around is that Kane’s intentions are much more obvious than those of Barrett’s. Kane is basically straight up telling us that he wants Cena to turn heel, while Barrett and Nexus were just being used as an avenue for the potential Cena heel turn. 

And I don’t find it to be unreasonable or nonsensical. At all. 

Kane is just like the trouble-making eighth grader who smokes cigarettes, drinks alcohol, flunks his classes and attempts to get others to do the same. Like that eighth grader, Kane wants Cena to give into temptation and to show that he has vices by finally turning on the fans. 

It’s not a stupid storyline. If anything, it makes a ton of sense because it’s something that we can easily relate to. 

We all know how it feels to be pressured into doing something that we don’t know what to do. We all know what it’s like to say no, and we all know what it’s like to say yes. 

Oftentimes, saying yes is the easiest thing to do, while saying no shows more character, or in Cena’s case, the ability to “Rise above hate.” 

So, will Cena rise above the hate, or will Kane’s influences bring him over to the dark side? Only time will tell.